Creative Pick: Hotels.com

Sometimes it’s important to take a step back from the daily realities of working in the advertising industry, and remember why I chose this career in it the first place. It’s not the same for everyone, but for me, I’ve always loved actual ads; the cool/funny/sad/inspiring/ridiculous stories they tell. Right now there is no smarter medium than digital to give brands the tools to tell those stories. So I have decided that from time to time I’m going to pick a recent digital campaign that has prized my attention away from my emails and told me a brilliant story to share with you all.

My pick this month is a brilliant example of a brand truly making the most of the digital toolkit available to them. This Hotels.com campaign was spotted as a pre-roll ad on a video on-demand service, and when viewed online provides users with two different experiences should they decide to ‘skip the ad’ or not. Have a go yourself, like many digital ads, the beauty is in the interaction. Hotels.com have used humour and character building perfectly, but I also love that they’ve clearly thought about the medium when briefing and building the creative. Truly smart marketing Hotels.com, we at the IAB salute you.